The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety resulted from a crossing performed in 1995 in North Taranaki, Nth Is, New Zealand. The seed parent is the unpatented variety, Michelia yunnanensis ‘Velvet and Cream’. The pollen parent is the unpatented variety Michelia hybrid ‘Mixed Up Miss’. The new variety was first selected in 1999, by the inventor, Mark Jury at a commercial nursery in North Taranaki, New Zealand.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘MicJur02’ by vegetative cuttings was first in performed in 2004 at a commercial nursery in New Zealand and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type on successive generations.